By Jamie Halliday and Lara Valera Ryn
100328.14
After The Puzzle
-=Main Engineering, USS Poseidon=-
100328.14
After The Puzzle
-=Main Engineering, USS Poseidon=-
“Hmm,” said Ashton as he examined the components before him for the umpteenth time.
“Hmm?” Jamie asked.
“Hmm,” Ashton confirmed.
He had still been completely unable to figure out just where all the energy from the antimatter reaction created by this device was being directed and staring at it was getting him nowhere.
Every few minutes he’d made sure to tap a button or check a reading but in truth this was purely for show to suggest he was doing something, when in fact there was nothing he could until he knew more. Unfortunately, Powell seemed to be catching on to that fact and every few minutes he found a reason to walk by and eye the three of them suspiciously.
His shadow was very quickly becoming an annoyance, at least to everyone but Jamie, who almost seemed to want to be here. Jamie to his credit was dealing with the potential destruction of the universe, should they do something wrong here, quite well. In fact, with how cheerful he was, one could almost think he welcomed it.
He was certainly the only cheerful one here as Ashton was becoming frustrated both by his position and his failure, whereas Lara was quietly feeling something so much more complicated. Having found nothing in the sensor logs, she stood now behind the two men so they didn’t see the complex emotions playing out on her face as she looked to the device not as an engineer or a Starfleet officer but as simply a person who knew enough about what she was seeing to be frightened.
“This entire design is crazy,” Ashton complained, once again, for in fact the fourth time, deciding they’d do better to just scrap this obsolete and incomplete system and start again.
“It is crazy,” Lara muttered under her breath in a way that Ashton didn’t hear her and Jamie barely noticed.
“I don’t see how this configuration was ever supposed to work,” Ashton added, as he once again pulled the intricate schematics up on the screen.
It was like being given the design of a house where each of the doors opened straight onto a brick wall and none of the staircases reached the other floors then being asked to find a way out. It was made even more complicated when you didn’t really want to find that way, but they put a gun to your head and it suddenly seemed a bit of a better idea.
“Someone did though,” Jamie mused and Ashton looked at him curiously. “I mean, it doesn’t look broken; it was designed to work this way. Someone must have been able to see in their mind how this was going to be a jump ship. It’s happened to me under different circumstances. I’m sure it’s happened to all of us. You have an idea that seems perfect and even works perfectly in simulation. Only then you actually build it and things don’t work as you thought they would. So you have to figure out your mistake and try again.”
“Yes, only in this case the designer, whoever they were, never fixed their mistake,” Ashton complained some more. “Now we’re expected to fix it for them without as much as some preliminary notes on its intended operation.”
While the two men seemed momentarily involved in wondering how this could be fixed, Lara was thinking something different.
“We can’t fix it,” she argued, moving closer between them and speaking at little more than a whisper.
At first Jamie didn’t understand.
“Come on, there’s no need to think like that,” Jamie answered optimistically, never giving up, even in spite of how precious little he understood about this ship. “When you think you can’t fix something you can only ever be proven wrong or give up. So as long as you don’t give up…”
“No,” Lara cut him off sternly, speaking as plainly as she possibly could and giving voice to thoughts that until now none of them had been willing to. “I mean we can’t fix it. They can’t understand the risk of this technology.”
Now even Jamie understood that she wasn’t suggesting they’d be unable to affect the repairs. Seeing a quick nod from Ashton he realized that Ledbetter wished to talk to Lara alone and so moved off to check a nearby readout for a little while.
Ashton waited until Jamie was well clear before talking again, not because he didn’t trust Halliday to be involved, but because he knew it’d look suspicious if all three were huddled together in discussion.
“We can’t just do nothing either,” Ashton finally answered, his eyes never moving from the screen as he lowered his voice to match hers. “It’s true, for now, we can honestly say we don’t know how to fix this. However contrary to appearances, Powell isn’t quite stupid enough not to realize if we stall for too long. We need to work if we’re going to get out of this alive.”
“You’re right,” Lara agreed, though in truth she was sceptical as she was still replaying the events on the bridge before they’d left over and over in her mind. She hoped it had all been an act, but she didn’t know.
She barely knew Ashton but he had certainly seemed to know Brody better than he’d let on. Now here he was, arguing the case for why they should help do exactly what Brody wanted. It was true he didn’t sound eager about it but then they never did. “I’m just not sure what any extra time we might buy is going to be worth if we’re just stuck here. They’ve effectively cut us off from any information except what they tell us.’
Ashton paused a moment in consideration of this fact.
“I’d feel much better if we could get someone on the bridge,” he finally acknowledged, which told Lara that whether she could trust him or not, he didn’t trust Brody as much as Brody might think he did.
“I may have an…” Lara started, but before she could finish they noticed Powell’s passing shadow was passing no more as the impatient man’s steps hurried towards them.
“You will speak so I can hear you,” Powell insisted sternly, forcing his way between the two individuals and lifting his mask up. “I know you’re plotting something.”
“All we were plotting was the repairs you asked of us,” Ashton argued back.
“Really?” Powell asked incredulously, not buying it for a moment. “Then what were you just talking about?”
“We were merely discussing…” Ashton started, quickly scrambling to find a believable lie and then quite surprised when Lara beat him to it.
“Calibration.”
“Calibration?” Jamie quietly asked with confusion, stepping back into the conversation.
“Yes, calibration,” Ashton answered. “The drive may…just need to be properly calibrated. We need to be able to compare readings from different calibrations. For that however, Lieutenant Ryn will need access a science station, preferably one located as far away from potential unanticipated distortion by the HRT as possible.”
Jamie nodded in agreement, quickly catching on.
“And where would that be?” Powell asked suspiciously.
“The bridge,” Lara answered simply and Powell scoffed.
“You can not be serious.”
“It is the farthest point on this ship from here and the one most likely to lead to accurate results.” Ledbetter argued, and Powell crossed his arms threateningly.
“You can have all the sensor data you want but you’re staying down here.”
Ashton dramatically shook his head, making a truly brilliant show of arguing his case as he stepped up closer to Powell.
“Those sensor readings are useless because they were all taken by people who didn’t know what they were doing. So you either let one of us onto the bridge or the readings will continue to be useless and the drive will not get fixed. When that happens, you’re the one who’ll have to tell Brody.”
Still suspiciously eyeing Ashton, Powell sighed heavily. He didn’t trust this action, but if there was some chance that Ashton was telling the truth and then Brody blamed him for holding things up then Powell would face the consequences. Besides, at least sending one of them to the bridge was one less person for him to have to worry about here.
Reluctantly he tapped his combadge.
“Powell to Bridge.”
[Go ahead,] Denise answered, sounding very tired.
“One of the Serendipity officers is requesting access to a bridge science station.”
There was a long pause as Denise considered, then second and third guessed her decision. She couldn’t give Brody any more ammunition here by making the wrong choice, but she had her own reasons for desperately wanting this drive to be fixed. Ultimately, she had to take the risk.
[Very well, I’ll have a security officer bring them up. Moreno out.]
Powell nodded, not that Moreno could see him. At the same time Lara shot Ashton a look herself and mouthed the words, Here goes nothing.
-----------------------
Lt. Lara Valera Ryn
Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Crewman Jamie Halliday
Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Lt. Lara Valera Ryn
Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Crewman Jamie Halliday
Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012